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I may settle for a m-i-c etricycle then.
BYD has been assembling EVs in Brazil since 2015. They are also manufacturing rolĺing stock, and partnering a consortium bidding on a US contract. How that turns out would be interesting.
According to this analyst, steel from China only makes up 1% of US import.
Biden is an old-school Democrat, and he is consistently pro-labor, and wanting to keep jobs in the US... the support for the UAW in last fall's strikes and the made-in-America requirements for getting these tax breaks on EVs are two other examples.
That said, I don't think the lady is wrong. This is an election year and Biden is getting more aggressive with his economic nationalism. It's not just the pending tariffs on Chinese steel for example - The Japanese company Nippon Steel recently made the winning bid to buy the perpetually troubled US Steel. They offered 40% over the market valuation, they offered to honor existing labor agreements, and they are expected to pour money into the company to modernize its antiquated foundries so as to produce better products at lower cost. In short, this is a good deal for US Steel and the American steel industry. The shareholders already approved the purchase. And what is Joe Biden doing? He is promising to block the sale of US Steel, and ranting about it being a national security concern. Mind you, Japan is one of our closest allies, and most of the steel produced by US Steel doesn't meet military specifications for quality anyway, so the national security argument is dubious at best, but apparently, the steel workers are loving it. To be honest, I don't know why the steel workers oppose the sale, but I guess they are afraid of change, and afraid modernization may mean a reduction in staffing... the thing is, slow sales because you're 30+ years behind the times can easily translate to lost jobs too, so I think they are offbase.
Yea, I think it's become obvious that Chinese automakers are expanding in Southeast Asia, Oceania, Central Asia, and Latin America, and this isn't going to stop that. Those combined are a much larger future market than the US is and will allow them to scale in a way that the US cannot, so the consequences for China overall are pretty blunted. Supposedly this will give US automakers some breathing room to catch up in the technology, but there's a mixed bag here where there's a strong possibility that US automakers retrench themselves into what they know best even as that goes obsolete.
It's like we've seen this movie before. More than once.
Biden is an old-school Democrat, and he is consistently pro-labor, and wanting to keep jobs in the US... the support for the UAW in last fall's strikes and the made-in-America requirements for getting these tax breaks on EVs are two other examples.
That said, I don't think the lady is wrong. This is an election year and Biden is getting more aggressive with his economic nationalism. It's not just the pending tariffs on Chinese steel for example - The Japanese company Nippon Steel recently made the winning bid to buy the perpetually troubled US Steel. They offered 40% over the market valuation, they offered to honor existing labor agreements, and they are expected to pour money into the company to modernize its antiquated foundries so as to produce better products at lower cost. In short, this is a good deal for US Steel and the American steel industry. The shareholders already approved the purchase. And what is Joe Biden doing? He is promising to block the sale of US Steel, and ranting about it being a national security concern. Mind you, Japan is one of our closest allies, and most of the steel produced by US Steel doesn't meet military specifications for quality anyway, so the national security argument is dubious at best, but apparently, the steel workers are loving it. To be honest, I don't know why the steel workers oppose the sale, but I guess they are afraid of change, and afraid modernization may mean a reduction in staffing... the thing is, slow sales because you're 30+ years behind the times can easily translate to lost jobs too, so I think they are offbase.
Just barely. And this is one of the few things he's actually on the right side of. IMO, there are certain commodities vital to our country, that shouldn't be foreign owned, and this is one of them.
And yes, I understand that, that is easier said that done. And that there is much more involved and this sale would actually benefit the company and it's workers.
I'm glad I'm not the one making these tough decisions. Hopefully though, when they do, they are thinking decades ahead, and not just to the next quarter.
The auto (and solar/battery) tariffs are designed to cut the Chinese supply chains in related US industries. It's about forcing US companies to take serious steps to near-shore critical sourcing and manufacturing so we cannot be held hostage to China's (currently) superior supply chain and knowhow (Covid certainly taught us the dangers of outsourcing critical supply chain production).
Basically, the US and China relative trade position and leverage on silicon chips and EV (and battery tech in general) are exact opposite. We hold all the cards in chips by virtue of having control of the IP (chip design software) and advanced equipment (lithograph machines that runs on US patents) required to make chips and used that leverage to neuter Huawei. If the current trend continues, China can do the same to us in EV (as well as solar and adjacent industries) because all the advanced development in these industries are happening in China - in addition to the fact that China has the capacity to make them. So the tariff is not about protecting US car companies per se... that's just the side benefit. The tariff is designed to really force US companies to get serious about not relying on Chinese solar and battery tech and supply chain. EV is just the most obvious manifestation of that policy.
I don't know if the tariff will work but it makes sense if you think about controls of critical input required for future industry and economy. Certainly it will be a very long process if this country even has the attention span for it. You can't undo 50+ years of outsourcing over night. We USED to be the big guns, and had tarrifs that seemed to work:
U.S. talks Free Market until such time that we cannot compete and then manufacturers and lawmakers cry "Wee, Wee, Wee, all the way home."
And then on go the protective tariffs. and continued chanting about our being Number ONE.
U.S. talks Free Market until such time that we cannot compete and then manufacturers and lawmakers cry "Wee, Wee, Wee, all the way home."
And then on go the protective tariffs. and continued chanting about our being Number ONE.
Did you see the graph I posted? When we had tariffs we WERE number one in the world. And right now, we need to force US companies to not outsource development and manufacturing to China, who will ALWAYS subsidize flooding the market to get our dollars. That's not "free market" either. It's government subsidized economic warfare by the Chinese. So we are trying to stop it in the US.
Google how much China are over producing right now in steel & aluminum, solar panels & materials, batteries & materials, cement & concrete. I don't know if the rest of the world really wants to "beat" China on producing stuff. China is set to become the ONLY "world factory" on Earth, and they will try to achieve this at ALL costs (environmental, unfair labor, unfair gov financial support, unfair trade balance).
Chinese auto makers will NOT be like Japanese or European maker that were willing to build factories outside of their country of origin to export their products. ALL the Chinese EVs will be 100% made in China by Chinese because they want to make 100% of the profit off us (who want cheap Chinese stuff).
Unfortunately some people here don't understand how new products get developed, manufactured for market, and sold at competitive prices. If extremely high tariffs are imposed or the China supply lines are cut off then many US companies will be forced out of business because they can't survive. It's as simple as that. If China decides to suddenly cut all exports to the US, and they could, then America would be in deep trouble really fast. Also keep in mind how many major US based businesses and real estate holdings are owned by China, not to mention they're holding much of our debt. So go ahead and beat up on big bully China and see how well that works out for Americans.
Nearly half of all US foreign-owned debt comes from five countries. All values are adjusted to 2023 dollars. As of January 2023, the five countries owning the most US debt are Japan ($1.1 trillion), China ($859 billion), the United Kingdom ($668 billion), Belgium ($331 billion), and Luxembourg ($318 billion).
Unfortunately some people here don't understand how new products get developed, manufactured for market, and sold at competitive prices. If extremely high tariffs are imposed or the China supply lines are cut off then many US companies will be forced out of business because they can't survive. It's as simple as that. If China decides to suddenly cut all exports to the US, and they could, then America would be in deep trouble really fast. Also keep in mind how many major US based businesses and real estate holdings are owned by China, not to mention they're holding much of our debt. So go ahead and beat up on big bully China and see how well that works out for Americans.
So yeah, let's just roll over for the CCP taking over economically. See how well THAT works out for Americans...
So yeah, let's just roll over for the CCP taking over economically. See how well THAT works out for Americans...
At least to me, this is all very complicated, so I don't have any easy answers. All I have been trying to say is that I am uneasy when I see politicians ranting on TV and social media - basically providing one-sided polemics, rather than nuanced arguments telling the whole story. At least in my opinion, there can be significant advantages of tariffs, especially if the competition is truly highly unfair... but there can also be significant disadvantages, and if e.g. Congressman Blowhard is making his/her case to the American people, I wish he/she would try to calmly tell us the whole story so we can have an informed opinion, rather than just trying to frighten us or make us mad.
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